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INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN EDINBURGH 
FOR CRIPPLED BOYS AND GIRLS 

Douglas C: McMurtrie 

Editor, American Journal of Care for Cripples 
NEW YORK 

For thirteen years organized work for crip- 
pled boys and girls has been carried on in Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, by the Edinburgh Cripple and 
Invalid Children's Aid Society. All of the 
features of this association's work are helpful, 
but some are so unique in character that the 
experience should be of general value and be 
likely to find application elsewhere. 

To gain an idea of the field of operation it 
may be recalled that Edinburgh, the capital of 
Scotland, is a city of well over 300,000 popu- 
lation. The community is largely industrial in 
character. 

The various activities of the society will be 
separately described. 

Home for Girls. — The Nellfield Girls' Home 
for crippled girls, founded in 1872, antedated 
the organization of the society, but is now 
maintained as a branch of its work. It accom- 
modates sixteen girls, most of the residents 
ranging in age from three to eleven years ; they 
receive lessons from the matron, who is a cer- 
tificated teacher. Several older girls are taught 
dressmaking. The Home is located at 21 Colt- 
bridge avenue. 

The work is followed up by the Old Nell- 
field Girls' Committee, which endeavors to keep 
ill touch with all the girls who have been for- 



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mcrly in residence at ihe home. This commit- 
tee assists the girls to obtain each year a fort- 
night's hoHday in the country, and aids neces- 
sitous cases in other ways. Most of the girls, 
however, neither expect nor receive such mate- 
rial help. 

Home for Boys. — The Home for Crippled 
Boys at 22 View forth Terrace accommodates 
fourteen residents. Board at $1.25 weekly is 
charged here, as also in the girls' home, but in 
needy cases this is provided by outside con- 
tributors. The age limit is fourteen years. 

Visitation of Cripples. — Since the founding 
of the society in 1902, the work of visiting 
cripples in their own homes has been one of its 
principal activities. Each year a number of 
invalids — children who are unable to attend 
school and whose parents have neither time nor 
talent for teaching — are given instruction regu- 
larly twice, and in some cases, three times, a 
week. Two examples were recently recorded 
to show the value of this work. "A little boy, 
nine years old, too delicate to start school at 
the usual age, has benefited so much from his 
visitor's teaching that on going to school this 
autumn he was put in a higher class than the 
average child of his age is fit for. Another lad, 
so crippled that he can never go out, was taught 
basket-making last winter, and not only has he 
now an added interest in life, but he has 
already earned a considerable sum of money." 
The society has a long list of volunteers for 
this work on its rolls. 

Parlor Meetings. — The so-called cripple par- 
lors, a feature of work unique to Great Britain, 
are held fortnightly in various sections of the 
city. To these meetings, which are largely 



Gift 






social ill character, the crippled children come 
for entertainment, companionship, and profit. 
Instruction is given in sewing, drawing, paint- 
ing, basket-making, etc. Toys and games are 
provided for those too young to take advantage 
of the classes. There is also an industrial 
center at which the older boys and girls are 
taught dressmaking, carving and basket-mak- 
ing. 

Clubs for Cripples. — The girls' club meets 
fortnightly from October till May. There are 
classes in sewing, embroidery and singing, and 
a lending library for the girls' use. A sum- 
mer holiday is arranged for. 

The boys' club meets weekly during the win- 
ter, carrying through some systematic program. 
In the summer a camping party is organized. 

Relief and Assistance. — Orthopedic appli- 
ances and artificial limbs are provided for cases 
requiring them. Whenever possible the parents 
pay part of the cost. The society also loans 
or rents at a small fee special carriages and 
invalid chairs. Milk, medicine and coal are 
given in necessitous cases. During the year 
the society sends delicate children to convales- 
cent homes in the country. 

Industrial Work. — It is this feature in the 
activity of the society which is of particular 
interest. In Edinburgh, as elsewhere, were 
found grave difficulties in obtaining employ- 
ment for cripples. The system developed solves 
the problem, at least to a certam degree. In 
1905 a boot-repairing shop was established, and 
later a separate workshop for tailoring, dress- 
making, and toymaking. In connection with 
the opening of the latter workshop the follow- 



ing statement of experience and principle was 
made. 

For crippled boys and girls the problem of employ- 
ment has always been serious, and especially is it the 
case in these days of keen industrial competition. 

An important part of the society's work is in help- 
ing those who leave school to find work. 

It is found that they resolve themselves into two 
classes — (1) those who after training may be able 
to take their place in ordinary workshops and become 
self-supporting; (2) those who will probably never 
be fit to enter ordinary workshops or to work for 
long hours, but who are able to do work under favor- 
able conditions, and at least partly support themselves. 

Even those in the first class find great difficulty in 
getting employment as apprentices, although, if trained 
to a trade, openings are more easily found. 

With this in view a boot repairing shop was opened 
some years ago. This shop, now at 13 Brougham 
street, is doing good work both in repairing and 
making, and its turnover is steadily increasing. Nine 
boys are employed under a competent foreman, while 
a number who have been trained in the shop are 
doing well in other boot shops. 

A large number of the crippled boys are not physi- 
cally fit for boot repairing, and to help these a tailor- 
ing branch is now being opened in the new workshop ; 
while, for girls, dressmaking is to be taught — in both 
cases under the charge of capable instructors, and in 
conditions as nearly as possible those met with in 
ordinary workrooms. It is hoped that in both tailor- 
ing and dressmaking a good deal of work in repair- 
ing will be given. In commencing, employment will 
be given to five or six boys and an equal number of 
girls. 

For the more helpless class it is proposed to start 
in a few weeks the making of toys and nursery furni- 
ture, with rug making, so that, though unable to find 
work in outside shops afterward they may be able 
to do work at home or in the workshop, and so be 
able at least partially to earn a livelihood. In this 
department there is room for about ten boys and 
girls. Altogether, about twenty boys and girls between 
the ages of 14 and 20 will probably be started in work' 
during the first year. 



Rented premises, well lit and with open surround- 
ings, have been secured on the first floor of 13a 
George street, and every care has been taken in adapt- 
ing the building, with due regard to economy, to make 
it healthy and pleasant. 

For those who cannot go home for their niitlday 
meal, a hot dinner is being provided at a small charge. 

At present no provision of boarding accommodation 
is being made for those who are homeless, but it is 
hoped that before long it may be possible to add this. 

A word might be said for those who are too infirm 
to move out of their homes, and who do knitting and 
such work at their homes, but find it hard to get a 
market for it. Their need is, from the nature of 
things, less apparent, but none the less real. Orders 
for their work will be gladly received at the work- 
shop. 

The work of the boot-repairing shop is con- 
sidered to have been satisfactory. In view of 
the fact that the primary purpose is construc- 
tively educational, the financial statement is 
encouraging. This expressed in dollars, and in 
round figures, is as follows : 

Year Earnings Expenses Deficit 

1905 $135 $ 580 $ 445 

1906 645 954 300 

1907 670 995 325 

1908 790 1,240 450 

1909 960 1,450 490 

1910 1,225 1,585 360 

1911 1,390 1,740 350 

1912 2,040 ' 2,360 320 

1913 2,190 2,535 345 

It will be observed that the receipts have 
steadily increased without a proportionate rise 
in expenses with the augmented output. It is 
believed that with a larger turnover the deficit 
may be wiped out. 

The results other than financial must also be 
taken into account. Since its establishment 
forty-one crippled boys have been given the 
opportunity to learn a trade. These are 



accounted for as follows: Seventeen are work- 
ing at their trade under ordinary conditions; of 
these six are earning from $5 to $6.50 a week, 
and another is in business for himself. Seven 
are earning from $2.50 to $4.25 a week, and 
three others smaller wages. Twelve proved 
unsuitable in physique or temperament, but 
some of these have found other employment. 
Eleven are still being trained in the boot shop. 
One died. 

In considering the figures given, it must be 
borne in mind that the cash scale of wages is 
considerably lower in Great Britain than in this 
country. According to a recent report : "These 
boys are instructed by a competent foreman in 
both the making and repairing of boots, so that 
at the end of two or three years' training, little 
difficulty is experienced, in spite of their dis- 
abilities, in finding them situations in which 
they receive an adequate wage and have the 
opportunity of completing their knowledge of 
their trade." 

The other workshop, for tailoring, dressmak- 
ing and toy-making, has not been in operation 
long enough to show conclusive results. During 
the second year of actual operation there were 
three instructors and twenty-four boys and 
girls on the force, the latter distributed as fol- 
lows : tailoring, seven boys ; toy-making, ten 
boys ; dressmaking, seven girls. During the 
year the receipts covered about half the expen- 
ditures, but this ratio is expected to improve 
with further operation. "But the value of the 
workshop to the workers and indirectly to the 
community cannot be measured in terms of 
finance. Through sympathetic discipline and 
application, and the sense of self-respect which 



conies from the consciousness of ability to earn, 
these two dozen boys and girls have been intro- 
duced to a larger life, satisfactory at once to 
themselves and to the community. To be a 
means of helping toward achieving the qualities 
and efficiency thus encouraged, is felt to be 
well worth all the expenditure involved alike in 
time, in work, and in money." This opinion 
i.s undoubtedly sound. 

Employment Committee. — The industrial 
work of the society is supplemented by an em- 
ployment committee, which meets weekly to 
deal with those cripples under its care who are 
seeking work. The committee has found from 
experience that it is especially easy for crippled 
boys and girls to drift into "blind-alley" occu- 
pations. After unsuccessful attempts to find 
employment, parents are apt to allow them to 
take any work that offers, and the result is often 
an occupation which gives a comparatively high 
starting wage, but has no tendency to develop 
the workers. It keeps them employed until they 
are too old to enter a skilled trade, and too 
often they ultimately become casual workers 
and loafers. The energies of the committee 
have thus been largely directed — and in many 
instances successfully — towards helping those 
who have had an unfortunate start of this kind 
to find work that will lead to something in the 
end, although the wage may at first be small. 
Some have had to be dissuaded from vain 
quests and advised to seek employment that 
was at least possible for them. Others, despair- 
ing and discouraged, have had to be urged on 
to keep searching for work. The efforts have 
been more than usually successful. At the end 
of a recent year the situation stood thus: About 



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73 per cent, of the boys of working age under 
the society's supervision were doing some work ; 
17 per cent, were unfit for practically any kind 
of work, and 10 per cent, were able to work, 
but were unemployed. The percentage of girls 
out of work was about the same, but the num- 
ber of those unfit for work was greater. Among 
those working, however, were a good number 
whose occupation was only partial, some for 
whom it was temporary or unsuitable, and 
ethers who were depending for help on the 
sale of products produced at home. 

It only remains to say that there are always 
between six and seven hundred cripples under 
the care of this excellent society at any time. 

The conclusions which have manifestly been 
drawn from experience in the work described 
are probably of practically universal applica- 
tion in industrial work for crippled children. 
There are a certain class of cripples who can 
make their way with the minimum of assistance 
under ordinary conditions of employment; and 
there is another class that is unemployable, that 
is, practically unfit for any work. But between 
these two classes is a third class of considerable 
numbers whose unsuccess, as regards self- 
support and consequent self-respect, can be 
turned into success through the expedient of a 
shop philanthropically subsidized, offering spe- 
cial conditions of employment, adapted to the 
individual handicaps of the workers. 

3505 Broadway. 



Reprinted from 

The Journal of the Missouri State Afcdical Axsocititioii 

February. 1916, Vol. XIII, />. 7S 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 942 062 04 



HoUinger Corp. 



